Cuyler Cornell, Aaron La Mere, arrested for sex offenses

Two teachers were arrested for sex-related offenses, Montgomery County Police said Monday.

Cuyler Jay Cornell, 50, was arrested and charged with several sex-related offenses. Cornell is a 7th grade teacher at Neelsville Middle School in Germantown.

And Aaron William Murray La Mere, 39, of Gaithersburg was arrested and charged with several sex-related offenses. La Mere had been a Media Services Technician in the Audio/Visual Department at Northwood High School in Silver Spring until recently.

In Cornell's case, police first received information that suspicious and inappropriate contact was occurring between a teacher at the middle school in February. The contact was occurring between Cornell and a 14-year-old student at the school, police say.

An investigation found that Cornell befriended the victim during the{ } 2010 to 2011 school year, when the victim was a student in Cornell's classroom. During the school year, Cornell began visiting the victim's home and going on excursions with the victim outside of school activities, police said.

The relationship between Cornell and the victim continued when the school year ended. After witnessing what they felt was inappropriate contact between Cornell and the victim on several occasions, independent witnesses notified school officials and police, police said.

Following an investigation, Cornell was charged with two counts of committing a third degree sex offense and one count of sexual abuse of a minor.

Another case

In his seven years at Northwood High School La Mere won praise for his work in building a high school radio and TV station and even now there are students who will offer praise.

But at crowded after school bus stops several students told us the charges against La Mere aren’t all that surprising.

“He always looked like a creep we never liked him,” Cecelia Robinson says. “He never smiled he always had the same creepy face.”

The 39-year-old La Mere was arrested Monday after a 2 month investigation. Police say a parent reported La Mere had propositioned a student. La Mere was suspended and then resigned in March. That's when police claim they found pornographic images of boys on his school laptop. It’s also alleged they found a photo of a naked male student which appeared to have been taken in the school on his phone.

Then, three juvenile male victims reported that La Mere propositioned and groped them and exposed himself in school. After a bond review hearing Tuesday, La Mere's father declined comment. His lawyer says La Mere's is no threat to the school and should be released pre-trial.

“He hasn't made any attempt to go back and intimidate anyone,” says Paul Stein.

La Mere is married but nobody answered the door at his Damascus home Tuesday. He has not been in Northwood High since March.